This is where you come to buy the very best of footwear. We're part of a
history here in the town and the county where we're the oldest established shoemaker in England.
We've been learning our craft for over you know 193 years, but we are
still applying the same principles of construction and manufacture and care as
we always have done. For us sourcing the very best leathers, getting the very best craftsmen here,
making sure we've got the best components and at the end of the day you know we want someone to
unbox that new pair of Tricker's and realise that they've bought into something really very very
special. Our values haven't really changed. Our intention is to make the very best and
highest quality footwear that you can buy. We are very proud of the fact that we bring the
leather into the factory here and the whole process is carried out within this building.
It means we have total control over every single aspect of that manufacturing process. The reason
Northampton is a world centre for boot and shoe making is the farmland, the abundance of
the cattle for the leather. It was also a county where it had some of the the best forests of oak
in England and that oak of course, the bark of those trees was used for tanning the leathers.
Tricker's was established in 1829 by Joseph Tricker. He was a boot maker from London his
daughter Clara Tricker married a boot maker from Northampton, and that's where the lineage of the
Tricker's family came from. Tricker's is still a family-owned business. Our history of country
boots and country footwear really does go back to creating footwear that was functionally perfect.
That's really why our footwear became the boot of choice for farmers, people who worked on the
land and in the fields. They were designed to keep your feet dry and they certainly did that.
We are a brand that made that transition from the farms to the city.
Back in 1937 to celebrate the coronation of George VI,
Tricker's developed two new lasts and those lasts were used to create the Stow and the Bourton.
This new brogue and this new boot that we'd created became really good sellers, and
interestingly the Stow and the Bourton developed over 70 years ago, are our best sellers today.
It's a real English classic style and quite specific and it's really down to the heavy build,
you know the strong welts and you know there's an awful lot of intricate broguing detail on them.
Here at Tricker's we're known throughout the world for selling the very best in country
shoes and boots. All of the craftsmen who work here are incredibly proud of what they do.
This county has a history going back to the 16th century of shoemaking and there are
people working here who's whose father, whose grandfather worked here, it's a local skill,
it's a craft and it's something we should be incredibly proud of here in Northampton
The Royal Warrant is for us you know particularly to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
a great honour and you know it means that the workmanship and the quality you know
here is recognised by the Royal Family. We have customers who have been wearing
Tricker's for fifty years and continue to do so, but then we also have a very strong following in
the arts and the culture world, film, TV. You're just as likely to find a
twenty year old Japanese DJ in our shop in Jermyn Street alongside you know possibly someone who
sits in the House of Parliament or Lords. It's quite a unique mix. I think all of our customers
they're all individuals, they're confident, you know very self-assured ,and they're very
happy to invest in a pair of timeless shoes or boots that you know that will last a lifetime.
Northamptonshire shoes are designed to last and they're also designed to be repaired.
We are the antithesis of the throwaway culture. The shoemaking process in a Northampton welted
factory is really a series of rooms. Each room has a specific function and purpose in terms of the
manufacturer of the shoe or boot. Once the leather has been sorted, it's brought into the Clicking
Room and we cut the leather from the patterns. Various parts of leather are then taken into
the Closing Room. The term Closing is used really for the sewing together of the
various pattern pieces to create and close the leather upper, things like the eyelet holes and
rivets and any decorative punch holes that create the unique Tricker's brogue patterns
are added here. The finished upper is then placed over the top of the wooden last and
drafted into position which means it's being pulled down and stretched over over the last.
Once it's stretched tight, it's secured with small nails, it holds the upper and the insole in place
until we get to the point of putting the welt on. The welt, which is arguably the most
important part of our shoe making process, is the leather strip that joins the insole to the upper
which is ultimately where the sole is attached to. Because welted shoes are sewn together rather
than glued, our skilled craftspeople here can dismantle repair and easily refurbish them.
First job in making is to put a shank into the sole which provides support to the shoe and then
a layer of cork is put into the cavity, which offers insulation and a lot of comfort. You know
the sole is sewn onto the welt and the excess of that is then rounded off. Before then the heels
are built.In the Finishing Room, the edges and the soles and all the heels are trimmed and buffed and
it produces a really smooth and really well crafted finish. Once they're in the Shoe Room, a
Tricker's sock liner is fitted into the shoes for comfort, they're cleaned and various creams and
wax polishes are generously applied. Every aspect of it is inspected to make sure that they pass the
final quality control check at the at the end of the process. Each pair has seen up to 260
individual operations on it before it's ready at that point to leave our factory.
Tricker's is quite unique. It goes back many centuries and has involved so many people.
I'm just here as a, you know, I'm a custodian.